The Melbourne Cup
Updated: 2025
No race matching the Melbourne Cup comes near it for excitement or history among the Australian Thoroughbred events. Each November, for over 150 years, Australia and New Zealand have nearly universally stopped what they were doing—and what they were doing was usually something really important—to watch and to maybe even cheer a bit for this twice-round-the-flag, three-and-a-half-in-the-air for two miles, Thoroughbred test of something. It has been anything but a test of the down-and-out Thoroughbreds over the last 10 years, as the last 10 winners have all been upwardly mobile actors in the sport.
When you take into account that sports spectators in Australia devote most of their attention to football and cricket, it says something about the annual appeal and prestige of the Melbourne Cup that it manages to far surpass both these sports and also the many other pastimes that vie for the nation's attention when it comes to first Tuesday of November. The Cup is treated in many quarters as an almost Australian national holiday.
A hallmark of The Melbourne Cup, setting it apart from the other super horse races, is that it runs under handicap conditions. What this means is that every horse in the race has a reasonably good shot at winning, thanks to weight allowances for the better competitors. Moreover, because of that, betting on the Cup is a hugely popular pastime in Australia, New Zealand, and around the world.
The Particulars of the Melbourne Cup
The Victoria Racing Club presents the Melbourne Cup, which happens every November on the first Tuesday of the month. It takes place at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, over a distance of two miles. The horses running that day will be on a grass surface as they try for a purse that weighs in at 7.3 million Australian dollars.
Horses may earn a spot in the race by winning one of several qualifying contests or by being selected by officials. The field is capped at 24 horses, but several times in recent years the actual number starting has been fewer than that. For the first 111 years of the event, it was a bit more than two miles long. The race was reduced to an even 3,200 meters (10,475 feet) when Australia switched to the metric system.
For the bulk of its history, the Melbourne Cup was contested under very strict handicap conditions. That is to say, each horse in the field had an equal chance to win. The better horses had to run with more weight, half the weight they carried being accounted for by the mass of the jockey and his or her gear. (A lighter, better-horse handicap is achieved by making the jockey carry less and by making the horse he or she rides carry more.)
Lately, the officials of this race have modified these regulations a bit. Though they still add some 1960s elements to the years of the horses, the severity of these weight additions has been lessened. The driving force behind these modifications was the wish for more good foreign horses—to and including the Cup—instead of just good local horses.
Therefore, the race is referred to as a 'quality handicap.' More weight is assigned to older horses than to younger ones. When it comes to horses of the same age, those whose past performances suggest a likelihood of their winning the race are assigned the maximum weight.
This unique feature of the Melbourne Cup presents an enormous opportunity for bettors. They can safely eliminate the risk of getting whacked with a super high number, yet still find a handful of horses in the field that present betting value and actually make 'Cuppers' more enticing as a betting event. This is why I take the couple of days leading up to the first Tuesday in November (the day the Cup is run) as serious business. I need to suss out those horses that provide this value, in both win and place contexts.
Origins of the Melbourne Cup
The Victoria Racing Club, which began as the Victoria Turf Club, created the Melbourne Cup. The idea for a race at the eventual site of the Flemington Racecourse originated with a police commissioner named Frederick Standish. The purse for the first race on November 7, 1861, was set at 710 gold sovereigns.
At first, the victorious owners were bestowed with a gold watch as a parting prize. After some time, a cup was fashioned, and the cup has become one of the trappings of the race. Indeed, the very Melbourne Cup trophy is so famous that it travels every year to out-of-the-way spots and little towns in Australia and New Zealand.
Historic Melbourne Cup Winners
The horse that took the first two races was the same horse. A stallion named Archer would win the first race, and then would go out the next day and win another two-mile race. He came back and defended his title the next year. A paperwork error denied him the opportunity to win three in a row.
Briseis, a filly of three years, wins in a matter of six days the three most important horse races run by the Victoria Racing Club—"the Derby, the Melbourne Cup, and the Oaks. They were reputed to have been patterned after the three most important horse races run by the British Epsom Club—the Derby, the Epsom Oaks, and, well, the Epsom Derby again."
MELBOURNE CUP Winner Grand Flaneur wins the Melbourne Cup as part of his unbeaten career. He would be a successful stud as well, siring two winners of the race.
Becomes the first horse bred in New Zealand to win the Cup.
The Melbourne Cup is won by Carbine despite his having to carry the heaviest weight penalty of any winner in the race's history. The accomplishment is made even more remarkable when one considers that there were 39 horses in that edition of the race, the largest number ever.
In a career that saw 11 victories in 14 starts, Poseidon won both the Melbourne Cup and the Caulfield Cup, achieving what is known in racing as the "Cup Double."
The first horse that was not bred in Australia or New Zealand to win the race is Comedy King.
In the history of racing in Australia, the horse that is regarded as the most famous is Phar Lap. He won the Melbourne Cup only once, although he attempted it three times; he was always a heavy favorite.
In these two years, Peter Pan is victorious, the only horse to win two non-consecutive Cups.
Hall Mark won despite an infection on his hoof that burst and bled late in the race.
Despite not being credited because of the existing rules, Mrs. Allan McDonald becomes the first female trainer to win the race, saddling Catalogue.
The race is won by three-year-old cold Skipton. For another 76 years, no horse that is only three years old would win the race again.
Back-to-back cups have been won by Rain Lover. At the Breeders' Cup in 1862, Archer won by what was then considered a very large margin. Eight lengths was a big deal then, and it is now. It is not a distance for which you would want to be a horse in the race, and it is not a distance for which you would want to be a horse behind in the race.
Jockey Frank Reys wins on Gala Supreme, becoming the first-ever Australian Aboriginal jockey to take victory in the race. Since Reys, no other Aboriginal/Islander jockey has earned this distinction.
Another double-winner as Think Big accomplishes the task.
The Melbourne Cup is won for the first time by a horse trained in Ireland: Vintage Crop.
In the latest history of fine Australian horses, Might and Power is one of the finest, doubling up by winning the Melbourne Cup and completing the Cup Double.
The only horse in Melbourne Cup history to achieve this unparalleled feat is the mare Makybe Diva, who wins three consecutive Cups.
A horse trained in France, named Americain, wins the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup.
Recent Melbourne Cup Races
| Year | Horse | Jockey |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Fiorente | Damien Oliver |
| 2014 | Protectionist | Ryan Moore |
| 2015 | Prince of Penzance | Michelle Payne |
| 2016 | Almandin | Kerrin McEvoy |
| 2017 | Rekindling | Corey Moore |
| 2018 | Cross Counter | Kevin McEvoy |
| 2019 | Vow and Declare | Craig Williams |
Melbourne Cup Traditions
Each year, the Victoria Racing Club puts on a highlight event—a true showstopper—really, the event that everyone knows about even if they don’t pay much mind to the sport the rest of the year. It comes as the encounter between two Aussie battlers, two icons really: football and rugby. The Melbourne Cup shines even more brightly as it grabs public attention during this period that’s otherwise absent of sports. Then it gives over public attention to the event it leads into, the Spring Racing Carnival.
In Melbourne, both the Derby and the Oaks are held within such a short time frame, but the Cup is clearly the superior of the three. It is a public holiday in Melbourne, giving many folks the chance to either go to the track and see their Fancy Run or stay home and gawk at the television.
The Melbourne Cup horse race and its betting were given a shot in the arm when they were first seen live on television in 1960. However, one might argue that the event became even more accessible to the masses when it was first broadcast live by radio in 1925. In today's world, the race, along with the option to bet on it, is at the fingertips of many, either on live TV or online.
The Melbourne Cup, like many world-renowned equine contests, has morphed into a potent cultural touchstone. A significant component of the festivities is a Fashions on the Field event that shines the spotlight on the Cup's most important accessories: hats and fascinators. This potent Margaret Atwood moment in the horse-racing universe also attracts a slew of international A-list stars to its front-and-center seats.
Betting Tips for the Melbourne Cup
You may be fortunate enough to find yourself in Melbourne one November and to be able to place a bet right there at the sporting event. But you are far more likely to be somewhere else in the world and to have to settle for betting not on site but through a remote channel. Here are some ways to make that remote bet as effective as possible.
Betting on the Melbourne Cup Online
These days, horse racing betting sites are everywhere. Given that the Melbourne Cup is such a prominent occasion, nearly all of these sites offer you the chance to wager on it. The knack lies in finding the one that suits your betting needs and desires.
Identifying what you want out of a site lets you choose the proper one for you. Decide what kinds of rewards you want for registering with the site. Search for reviews about the customer service level that you will receive from each site.
Also, you should seek a betting website that has earned a reputation among horseplayers.
Merely having horse racing on the betting menu doesn’t mean a site is good for those who bet on the sport regularly. When you head to the Melbourne Cup betting sites, take a moment to look them over. Check out how easy they are to get around. The sites you choose should allow you to make your wagers on the Melbourne Cup and any other horse races you have coming up without a hitch.
Types of Bets on the Melbourne Cup
Determine whether you prefer to keep your Melbourne Cup betting uncomplicated or to make it a bit more intricate. Some kinds of horse racing bets will let you zero in on a single horse, which sure simplifies decisions about which horse to back when you also have to think about other contenders in the field. Yet, there are also betting opportunities that allow you to select from several horses and, by extension, from several different possible outcomes of the race.
What you will find is that betting straight for a win or a place is easier to win. It also doesn't pay nearly as much unless you're hitting an actual long shot. Conversely, the more exotic wagers aren't easy to win, but they are almost certain to pay off in substantial fashion if you do win.
Strategies for Betting on the Melbourne Cup Online
One feature of real money Melbourne Cup betting that stands out is the comparatively low percentage of favorites that win the race, at least when you compare it to other big stakes races. The structure of the handicap has a lot to do with this. Even if a horse might be the best in the field, the extra weight it has to carry evens things out quite a bit.
Consequently, the approach you take when betting on the Cup should involve assessing in detail the kind of weight each horse has been assigned. You want to peek into the kind of performances a horse has turned in when it has been weighted in a similar manner. If a horse has consistently been weighted to where it's had to perform at a near-maximum effort, and it's managed to get by, that's a good sign because the Cup is a long race.
